This is another shot of Warsaw's Castle Square which was taken on the morning following my earlier blue hour shot. I was up at 3:15 AM for this shot as well and quickly made my way through old town before stopping briefly for this shot and then heading out over the Vistula River for some shots of the city.
I have several more shots to get to as I took over 6,000 frames while traveling between Poland and Germany, but I've got some other shots from the Summer that I'm hoping to post from recent trips to Virginia and DC, Yosemite, and just recently back out to Joshua Tree for the Persid meteors. I hope to get most of those posted before our next big trip to Canadian Rockies this September. Annnnnd.....I start teaching again on Monday....so I'd better get back to processing! As always, thanks for the views and comments!
William McIntosh Photography
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Tags: Warsaw Castle Square Sunrise Rockinon 12mm 2.8 Fisheye
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I've seen on a bit of a hiatus from flickr over the past several weeks as I spent a couple of weeks in Europe over the Summer before heading back to Virginia and Washington DC for our annual family trip to visit our good friends in Loudoun County. I've spent the last couple of weeks digging out, and am just now getting to the growing pile of shots from over the Summer.
I thought I would begin with a shot from one of my favorite spots from my two week trip to Europe. The folks I was with had scheduled stops in Warsaw, Lublin, Poniatowa, Krakow and finally Magdeburg Germany. Our first stop was in Warsaw where I was immediately struck by by the overall beauty of the Old Town section of the city and Castle Square. As some of you may be aware, Warsaw was completely flattened by the Nazis as they pulled out toward the end of World War II. As you walk through the restored Old Town area, there are walls lined with photos where you can see that the castle, churches, homes business....almost every structure in the city was reduced to rubble. Like many other European cities, Warsaw rebuilt it's older section of the city with painstaking detail using many of the original bricks that were in piles through that section of the city.
Once you move past Old Town, the modern section of the city is growing at an incredible rate. Several new high rise buildings were going up all around the downtown area of the city where the large Soviet era government building is now slowly becoming dwarfed by several new glass paneled modern structures. Across the river, the new Olympic stadium glows at night and has now become part of the cityscape visible from several spots along the Vistula (Wisla) River.
But my favorite spot, by far, was the amazing Castle Square located just behind the Royal Castle along the river. In the center of the square stands the Column To King Sigismund III Vasa, which apparently survived the bombing in the war. On the castle side of the square you can look out over the river below. Behind the Column lies old town, all of which had to rebuilt. Cafes and shops and churches surround the entire square. The square has been the location for several key moments in Polish history, including the January uprising and, more recently, the location where Clinton welcomed Poland to NATO in 1997.
Tags: Castle Square Warsaw Poland Twilight Blue Hour
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Sunrise comes early in Poland in July, so I was up at 3:15 AM and had to wake up the hotel security guard to let me OUT of my hotel as apparently no SANE people are leaving the hotel at that hour of the morning.
Once I was out, I quickly made my way across the Vistula River and began shooting back toward the Wawel Castle. After about 2 hours of shooting, I made my way back to the hotel only to find that I was now locked OUT of the hotel! What the ...??? I finally found my way back in after another 30 minutes, but if you are planning on staying at the Hotel Royal, be aware that they have no air conditioning and the front desk staff goes home at night!
William McIntosh Photography
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Tags: Vistula River Krakow Wawel Castle Sunrise
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After we left Warsaw, we traveled South to the beautiful city of Krakow. Krakow escaped quite a bit of the bombing from World War II, and as a result, much of the architecture survived intact. In addition to a huge castle on the river, the city features several incredible churches and a mammoth city square which seemingly takes about a week just to walk around the perimeter. If the rest of the city seems a bit unpopulated at twilight it's because EVERYONE in the city is in that square once the lights come on. But if you want to shoot the square with no one in it, you'll need to wait until well past 2 AM, even on weekdays.
I found Krakow to be an incredible city that rivaled Prague and Budapest with its cobble stone streets, cafes, and music. The beet soup I could probably live without (they add sour milk and drink this stuff cold!) but I definitely hope to return some day when I have more time to shoot.
William McIntosh Photography
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Tags: Krakow Main Square Sunrise Poloand
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